<div dir="ltr"><h2 class="entry-title" style="font-size:23px;margin:0px 0px 5px;font-weight:500;line-height:27px;padding-right:30px">Israel lobbyists smear Khashoggi as terrorist so as to maintain Saudi alliance — and plans for Iran war</h2><span class="gmail-category-icons" style="font-size:0px;line-height:0"><a href="https://mondoweiss.net/us-politics/" class="gmail-cat-us-politics" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);background:rgb(124,163,140);display:inline-block;height:11px;margin-right:8px;width:11px">US Politics</a></span> <div class="gmail-author-time" style="color:rgb(167,166,168);display:inline-block;font-family:adelle-sans,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:17px;padding-top:2px"><a href="https://mondoweiss.net/author/philweiss/" title="Posts by Philip Weiss" class="gmail-author gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="author" style="color:rgb(167,166,168);display:inline-block;line-height:17px;padding-top:2px">Philip Weiss</a> on October 19, 2018 <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2018/10/lobbyists-khashoggi-terrorist/#comments" class="gmail-article-comments" style="color:rgb(167,166,168);display:inline-block;line-height:17px;padding-top:2px">14 Comments</a><div id="gmail-control-wrap" style="float:right"><div class="gmail-clearfix"></div><ul id="gmail-controls" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 36px;padding:0px;list-style:circle;float:left"><li style="border:0px;display:block;float:left;line-height:24px;list-style-type:none;margin-right:5px"><a id="gmail-fs-minus" href="https://mondoweiss.net/2018/10/lobbyists-khashoggi-terrorist/#" title="Smaller Text" style="color:rgb(167,166,168);display:inline-block;line-height:16px;padding-top:2px;outline:none 0px"><img src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/themes/mondoweiss-responsive/assets/img/minus.png" height="20" width="20" border="0" alt="Decrease Text Size" style="vertical-align: middle; border: 0px; outline: 0px; outline-offset: 4px; max-width: 100%; width: 20px; height: 20px; opacity: 1;"></a></li><li style="border:0px;display:block;float:left;line-height:24px;list-style-type:none;margin-right:5px"><a id="gmail-fs-plus" href="https://mondoweiss.net/2018/10/lobbyists-khashoggi-terrorist/#" title="Larger Text" style="color:rgb(167,166,168);display:inline-block;line-height:16px;padding-top:2px;outline:none 0px"><img src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/themes/mondoweiss-responsive/assets/img/plus.png" height="20" width="20" border="0" alt="Increase Text Size" style="vertical-align: middle; border: 0px; outline: 0px; outline-offset: 4px; max-width: 100%; width: 20px; height: 20px; opacity: 0.5;"></a></li><li style="border:0px;display:block;float:left;line-height:24px;list-style-type:none;margin-right:5px">Adjust Font Size</li></ul><div class="gmail-clearfix"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-clearfix" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-family:ff-more-web-pro,serif;font-size:14px"></div><div class="gmail-c2-9 gmail-offset1" style="margin-left:109.333px;display:inline;float:left;min-height:1px;width:658.667px"><img width="600" height="400" src="https://s19453.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Block.jpg" class="gmail-attachment-post-thumbnail gmail-size-post-thumbnail gmail-wp-post-image" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; border: 0px; outline: rgb(222, 222, 223) solid 1px; outline-offset: 4px; max-width: 100%; height: auto;"></div><div class="gmail-c10-12 gmail-caption" style="margin-left:24px;display:inline;float:left;min-height:1px;width:232px;color:rgb(167,166,168);font-family:adelle-sans,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:16px;margin-bottom:0px">Josh Block</div><div class="gmail-clearfix"></div><div class="gmail-c1" style="margin-left:24px;display:inline;float:left;min-height:1px;width:61.3333px;color:rgb(26,26,26);font-family:ff-more-web-pro,serif;font-size:14px"><div id="gmail-sticker-sticky-wrapper" class="gmail-sticky-wrapper gmail-is-sticky" style="height:242px"><div class="gmail-social-icons-wrap" id="gmail-sticker" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;border-width:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(242,242,242);height:auto;padding:0px;text-align:center;width:52px"><div class="gmail-share"><span class="gmail-st_twitter_custom gmail-btn-twitter" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:rgb(242,242,242);color:rgb(99,97,100);display:block;font-family:Ionicons;font-size:20px;height:40px;line-height:40px;width:50px"></span><span class="gmail-st_facebook_custom gmail-btn-facebook" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:rgb(242,242,242);color:rgb(99,97,100);display:block;font-family:Ionicons;font-size:20px;height:40px;line-height:40px;width:50px"></span><span class="gmail-st_googleplus_custom gmail-btn-google" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:rgb(242,242,242);color:rgb(99,97,100);display:block;font-family:Ionicons;font-size:20px;height:40px;line-height:40px;width:50px"></span><span class="gmail-st_reddit_custom gmail-btn-reddit" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:rgb(242,242,242);color:rgb(99,97,100);display:block;font-family:Ionicons;font-size:20px;height:40px;line-height:40px;width:50px"></span><span class="gmail-st_email_custom gmail-btn-email" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:rgb(242,242,242);color:rgb(99,97,100);display:block;font-family:Ionicons;font-size:20px;height:40px;line-height:40px;width:50px"></span><span class="gmail-btn-print" style="box-sizing:border-box;background:rgb(242,242,242);color:rgb(99,97,100);display:block;font-family:Ionicons;font-size:20px;height:40px;line-height:40px;width:50px"></span></div></div></div></div><div class="entry-content gmail-c2-8" style="margin-left:24px;display:inline;float:left;min-height:1px;width:573.333px;color:rgb(26,26,26);font-family:ff-more-web-pro,serif;font-size:14px"><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">Even as headlines around the world say that it murdered a critical journalist, Saudi Arabia has some friends in the U.S. The Israel lobby is going to bat for the theocratic dictatorship over the alleged killing of Jamal Khashoggi.</p><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">Last night on i24 news, EJ Kimball, an Israel advocate at the Middle East Forum, suggested that Khashoggi deserved to die. The journalist’s “ties to al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood” raise “a whole lot of other issues” about the Saudi tradition of exporting terror, Kimball said. The much bigger picture, he said, is the new Saudi Arabia taking on Iran.</p><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">Josh Block of the Israel Project made a similar allegation about Khashoggi two nights back. Pro-Al-Qaeda media are pushing the Khashoggi story, Block said, “because Khashoggi was a radical Islamist terrorist ally who was close to Osama Bin Ladin, ISIS, Hamas & wanted to overthrow the Saudi ruling royals, who oppose both the Sunni terrorists, sponsored by Turkey & Qatar, as well as Irans’s Shia terrorist armies & allies.”</p><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px"> </p><div id="gmail-attachment_189766" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-aligncenter" style="margin:20px auto;color:rgb(167,166,168);font-family:adelle-sans,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:16px;width:590px;overflow:visible"><img class="gmail-size-large gmail-wp-image-189766" src="https://s19453.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Dp37bleWkAEohr5-580x415.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="415" style="vertical-align: middle; border: 0px; outline: rgb(222, 222, 223) solid 1px; outline-offset: 4px; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1px; padding: 0px; width: 585px; height: auto;"><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:16px">Josh Block’s tweet on Jamal Khashoggi, preserved by Remi Brulin</p></div><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">Meanwhile, Israeli leaders have been staying quiet about the Khashoggi murder, <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2018/10/mainstream-ignoring-alliance/" class="gmail-sizeable" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);font-size:20px">as James North has repeatedly pointed</a> out on our site. That’s because Israel and Saudi Arabia are now allied against Iran, evidently seeking an American-led war against the country, and all the attention to the rubout of a journalist is throwing a wrench in the works.</p><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">A former US ambassador to Israel who now lives in the country and serves as an Israel advocate <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilytamkin/kashoggi-disappearance-israel-quiet-saudi-arabia?bftwuk&utm_term=4ldqpgm#4ldqpgm" class="gmail-sizeable" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);font-size:20px">explains the silence</a>:</p><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 36px;padding:0px;color:rgb(99,97,100);font-style:italic"><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">The Israelis are “in a very difficult position,” Dan Shapiro, the US ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama, told BuzzFeed News. “They count very much on Saudi Arabia,” which is “central to their strategic concept of the region.” Saudi Arabia, after all, is their partner in arms in countering and isolating Iran and Israel’s “strategic anchor” in the region.</p></blockquote><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">Max Blumenthal <a href="https://twitter.com/maxblumenthal/status/1053097984123158529?s=12" class="gmail-sizeable" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);font-size:20px">explains</a> the importance of Saudi Arabia:</p><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 36px;padding:0px;color:rgb(99,97,100);font-style:italic"><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">For the Beltway’s Israel lobbyists, it’s all hands on deck this week for Saudi Arabia and MBS [Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman]. Their war on Iran party has been unexpectedly disrupted and a natural ally is on the brink.</p></blockquote><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">Israel and the Saudis have been quietly cooperating in the last couple of years as they face a mutual enemy/regional rival in Iran; and Jared Kushner’s much-anticipated peace plan surely involves an <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2018/10/outside-administrations-remake/" class="gmail-sizeable" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);font-size:20px">Outside-In approach</a>, in which Saudi Arabia and its friends would seek to force Palestinians to accept Bantustans on the West Bank as supposed sovereignty, and put quibbles over Jerusalem and refugees behind them forever. It’s reminiscent of what American elites were able to overlook in the Egyptian dictatorship for decades, just because Egypt recognized Israel. Saudi Arabia surely wants the same treatment.</p><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">A lot of the press heralding Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as a great reformer–the man now accused of ordering Khashoggi’s elimination– must be revisited now and seen as an effort by Israel’s friends to prepare Americans for the new alignment. For instance, the crown prince of Israel lobbyists, former peace processor Dennis Ross (who says American Jews <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/american-advocates-palestinians/" class="gmail-sizeable" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);font-size:20px">“need to be advocates for Israel”</a>), went to Saudi Arabia twice to watch bin Salman in action and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/12/america-should-get-behind-saudi-arabias-revolutionary-crown-prince/?utm_term=.efcff309c749" class="gmail-sizeable" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);font-size:20px">wrote a piece in the Washington Post</a> last February, calling the prince the “driving force for change” and a “revolutionary” the U.S. should support.</p><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 36px;padding:0px;color:rgb(99,97,100);font-style:italic"><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">His efforts to transform Saudi society amount to a revolution from above…</p><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">if it was not for the turmoil and conflict that are consuming the region, the big story in the Middle East would be the transformation taking place in Saudi Arabia.</p></blockquote><p class="gmail-sizeable" style="margin:1em 0px;font-size:18px">Ali Gharib <a href="https://twitter.com/ali_gharib/status/1053275474091298816?s=12" class="gmail-sizeable" style="color:rgb(4,52,100);font-size:20px">noted:</a> “This line from Dennis Ross should live in infamy, as a testament to his incredible wrong-headedness on so many subjects: ‘Ironically, the skeptics are primarily outside Saudi Arabia and not in it.'”</p></div></div>